Music Therapy

We put Aiden in a music therapy class probably around age 3.  He loved music and I had read about how many people on the spectrum tend to show a heightened interest and response to music so it could be used a therapeutic tool for working with them.  It’s basically using music to address behavioral, social, sensory, etc. issues because kids enjoy it and it seems non-threatening.  That sounds so simple or unimpressive as I write it but when you have a small child on the spectrum and you’re able to find something that they find non-threatening and enjoyable, that’s a really big deal!  I don’t remember how long we had Aiden in this program but I do remember that towards the end it seemed we were having more bad days than good.  We parents didn’t get to see what was going on in the room but we could hear the music, the singing, the instruments, the crying, whatever was going on.  It probably could have been a great thing for Aiden but just not at that time.  This early part of his life was really very difficult for us.  We were learning about autism as we were dealing with it and being that he was non-verbal just made everything so much harder.  But we were trying everything that we would learn of and I’m very glad we did because whether or not each program or activity we tried was successful, there was always something to learn from the experience.